13.04.2022 by Aileen Sammler, Jürgen Zöller

60 Years of NETZSCH-Gerätebau GmbH: The NETZSCH Thermobalance

Thermogravimetry could always be used universally and therefore did not exclude any material. Besides high temperature applications, NETZSCH also wanted to occur in other industries, including organic chemistry, pharmacy, medical technology, biotechnology, the food industry and, last but not least, the all-important plastics industry. So, the low-temperature thermobalance was born.

April is all about Thermogravimetry, short TGA:

The Thermobalance – Universally Applicable for Many Materials

Thermogravimetry could always be used universally and therefore did not exclude any material. NETZSCH – stemming from high-temperature applications such as ceramics, glass, and metals – had to realize at the end of the 1980s that rapid economic growth was also occurring in other industries, including organic chemistry, pharmacy, medical technology, biotechnology, the food industry and, last but not least, the all-important plastics industry. To accommodate all these applications, a smaller, faster and – as we “NETZSCH people” say – low-temperature thermobalance was needed quickly.

Some Insights into the NETZSCH Instrument Nomenclature

By the end of the 1980s, NETZSCH had adapted to the fact that ‒ in view of invasive plastics technology, medical/pharmaceutical technologies, and application possibilities in the food and feed industries; in short, the “world of organics” ‒ we had to move into the lower realms of temperature ranges in order to hold the “leading position” in thermal analysis but also to grow.

Therefore, already in 1987, the first “non-400 thermoanalytical instrument”, the DSC 200, was introduced as a testing instrument for plastics. Thus, the “low-temperature instrument series”, as it was called from then on in NETZSCH cycles, was born. And, as it soon turned out, this supposedly “low-temperature 200 series” expanded to a temperature range of no less than 1000°C! ?

Picture: Ad from the 80s: The NETZSCH low-temperature 200 series, consisting of the TG 209, DSC 200 and DMA 242

Thus, in 1989, the first NETZSCH TG 209/2/C was born; in its nomenclature, the “last digit”, 9, has always been (and still is) reserved for thermobalances. The “2” represents the temperature range that was defined to 1200°C, and was only undercut by the “1” for coolable furnace systems. Numbers 3, 6, 7, and even 8 for one instrument, were assigned to the temperatures from 1500°C to ultimately 3000°C.

Back to the new balance and the unique success story of the TG 209 that conquered the world and also the hearts of customers like no other balance. The decisively advantageous features of this small, fast thermobalance have prevailed and proven both worthwhile and successful over the entire 30 years to this day.

Photo: One of the first TG 209 instruments with flip-top lid and TASC 414/2

Today: Vacuum-Tight Thermo-Microbalance for the Highest Demands

After the Iris®, Tarsus®andNevio® models, it’s above all the TG 209 F1 Libra® with its fast ceramic furnace to 1100°C that enjoys lasting popularity today. This is because NETZSCH developed the TG 209 F1  Libra® thermobalance based on more than 60 years of experience in thermogravimetry. With this instrument, analyses can be carried out even faster, more accurately and over an expanded temperature range.

Photo: TG 209 F1 Libra® with ASC

Advantages at a glance:

  • Top-loading weighing system (chimney effect, balance protection)
  • Purge-gas-rinsed, thermostated and high-resolution microbalance (0.1 µg)
  • Fast, water-cooled ceramic furnace in Al2O3 protective tube
  • Vacuum-tight (with AutoVac) and triple MFC for gas purging and exchange
  • Can be perfectly coupled to all imaginable gas analyzers: Solutions for QMS, GCMS and FT-IR couplings directly from NETZSCH through a single source with joint control and software solutions
Figure: Pluggable TGA carrier made of Al2O3 with “Mercedes star”, support and radiation shield
Photo: Automatic Sample Changer (ASC) for 192 samples (distributed on 2 trays) + 12 calibration sample positions

By the way: The children of our Chinese colleagues have also been busy with the TG 209 F1 Libra® and have created an illustration for it that we’ve included in this year’s calendar for the month of October:

You can download the calendar 2022 here.

For more information on thermogravimetry, please visit our website.

Read next week, how the department of polymer materials at the university of Bayreuth uses the NETZSCH TG 209 F1 Libra® in conjunction with the NETZSCH Kinetics Neo software for prediction of the aging behavior of plastics.